Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 21 - Part 1

00:01 Chapter 21. The Alter Rebbe says in Chapter 21: “The way of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like the way of flesh and blood.” The Alter Rebbe says that the way Hakadosh Boruch Hu acts is not like the way a human being acts. There is a difference between the two. This is a familiar teaching of our Sages in connection with other subjects. The Gemara says it about a full vessel and an empty vessel: By human standards, an empty vessel can hold something, while a full vessel cannot. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a full vessel can hold something, while an empty vessel cannot. That is what the Gemara says. The Alter Rebbe uses this teaching in connection with what we are discussing here. And what are we discussing? The oneness of Hashem. The Alter Rebbe is in the middle of explaining the oneness of Hashem. The point we learned in the previous chapter was that the Alter Rebbe explained the oneness of Hashem through an analogy from human speech. That was the point of Chapter 20. The Alter Rebbe brings an analogy from an expression of the human soul—its faculty of speech—to explain how the world is nullified in relation to Hashem, since the world, too, is connected with the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And we explained that, in the human soul, a single utterance is utterly incomparable to the soul’s faculty of speech. All the more so, it is incomparable to the faculty of thought; and all the more so, to the very essence of the soul and its ten faculties. Because it is utterly incomparable, a single utterance is considered absolutely nothing in relation to the soul. In this connection, the Alter Rebbe will now go on to explain in Chapter 21 that the same applies to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: all of creation is a matter of speech. The word of Hashem is what gives creation its existence; it is the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the speech of Hakadosh

02:27 Boruch Hu is utterly incomparable to His thought. It is even more incomparable to the ten sefiros, to Ein Sof, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. So this is how utterly incomparable created beings are, how they are considered nothing—all their existence comes from the word of Hashem—in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Here, in Chapter 21, the Alter Rebbe goes further. He wants to add still more depth to the oneness of Hashem: the unity of creation with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When we say that the world is one with Him, that it is not a separate existence, even though we do not see Him and the world appears to be an independent existence, the world’s unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu goes much further than in the analogy of speech and the soul. In what respect does it go further? That is the principle the Alter Rebbe begins explaining here in Chapter 21. Let’s read it. The Alter Rebbe says: “The way of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like the way of flesh and blood. When a person speaks, the breath of speech in his mouth can be sensed and appears to be a thing unto itself, separate from its source, which is the ten faculties of the soul itself.” With a person, speech comes out through the mouth. When a person actually speaks, the speech comes out through the mouth and can be sensed as something separate. It becomes separate from the soul; it goes outside. In other words, when we speak about the human soul, the soul and the actual speech are in two different places—two places. The soul is spiritual and is in a spiritual place, while speech is expressed in the mouth and goes outside. It does not remain even in the mouth; it reaches a person outside oneself. My soul is inside me, and when I say a word, the speech goes outside and becomes separate. Now it is with another person. So they are in two different places. And it is not only two different places; it is also two different levels. In

04:50 other words, speech becomes distinct; it becomes separate. That is the nature of speech. There is a teaching of our Sages: When a person has a word in mind but has not yet said it—he has only thought it—he is master of that word. He can decide whether to say it or not. It is still with him. But the moment I have said the word, I am no longer its master. The opposite: now the word is my master. I have become a slave to the word. Because once you have said something and someone has heard it, you have said it. And now you say, “I didn’t mean that. I didn’t want to—I wanted to say something else.” But you have already become a slave. You have to explain yourself, justify yourself, and say what you meant and why you meant it. Someone heard you, got upset with you, and now there is a whole mess. Before you said the word, you were free. The moment you said it, you became a slave, because now the word is with someone else, and that person will do what he wants with it. If he does not like what you said, it will cause you problems. So that is an analogy for what the Alter Rebbe says about the way of flesh and blood. Speech as it exists within the soul, and speech after it leaves the soul, are different: once it leaves, it becomes separate, an existence unto itself. “But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, His speech is not separate from Him, G-d forbid.” With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there are no two levels. There is no such thing as speech as it is with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and speech after it goes outside. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there are no two levels. His speech never leaves Him. Even when Hakadosh Boruch Hu actually speaks and says, “Let there be light,” and there is light, the word of Hashem—even when it is revealed to bring something into being from nothing—never leaves

06:50 the level of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because it is impossible to leave that level. Nothing leaves Him; everything is contained within Him. Why? As he says: “For His speech is not separate from Him, G-d forbid, because His speech is not outside Him.” Nothing is outside Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “And there is no place devoid of Him”—there is no place where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not present. So wherever the speech is, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is there as well. “Therefore, His speech is not like our speech, G-d forbid.” It follows that there is a very great difference between human speech and the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us now? What is the point here? What is the deeper idea behind all this that the Alter Rebbe is now telling us? Here is what we are saying. We want to explain how all the worlds are nullified in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and we bring the analogy of speech. But that raises a question about speech: there is a difference between speech while it is within the soul and speech after it leaves the soul. Within the soul, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier in the analogy, when a person is still at the level of intellect and emotion, speech is nothing at all. It has no significance whatsoever. In the realm of intellect and emotions, speech is not an existence in its own right, as we discussed in the previous class. It makes no difference whether you speak Spanish or Hebrew. Love is not about language; it is about feeling. So the particular word you use makes no difference. It changes nothing. It is as though the word does not exist. That is not the point. It is not the word; it is the content, the feeling. There are no words there yet, as the Alter Rebbe says. That is, even if there are

08:42 words there, they are not an existence in their own right; they are nothing at all. They are nullified. They have no standing whatsoever. But that is within the soul, within the intellect and the emotions. When it comes to another person, though, where the only way to communicate is with the mouth, through speech, speech does become something real. Speech is important there, because it is the only way I can know what you want. You convey what is in your soul through speech, and there speech matters and has significance. So if we were to say the same thing about what the analogy represents, it would follow that in relation to Ein Sof, when the speech is contained within its source—before the tzimtzum, in Atzilus—it is indeed nothing at all. But when it becomes vested in the words “Let there be light,” at the level of speech, the level of the Ten Utterances, where it actually brings the world into being, it seemingly leaves the realm of Ein Sof, the realm of the sefiros, and becomes vested in the chain of descent leading to this world. There, then, speech does matter. If so, the oneness of Hashem would apply only as long as the speech is contained within its source. But the moment speech leaves the mouth to do its work, it would already have some standing and significance. To this the Alter Rebbe responds by explaining that “His speech is not like our speech.” That is the explanation; that is the answer. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like human speech. With a person, that is indeed true: there are two states. There is speech as it is contained within the soul, and there is speech in the mouth when you speak to someone else. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, speech never leaves the soul—never leaves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There are no two levels, because even when Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings something into being, even when His speech becomes vested in the chain of descent, in that very place there is also

10:37 So the Ein Sof is present. The speech never leaves it, because there is no real departure from the Ein Sof. The speech is always connected, always attached, always included in the Ein Sof and in its source, and it never leaves. There is no speech that is separate from Him. Why? Because “there is no place devoid of Him.” Now for the explanation and reasoning behind this. The Alter Rebbe does not elaborate here, but the explanation is understood from what is written in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. There the Alter Rebbe explains it at length, with the full explanation of the Arizal and the concept that tzimtzum is not literal: all of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s light is here. There is never an actual tzimtzum. The Ein Sof is truly present down here just as it is above. Because the speech never, never, never becomes disconnected from Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the speech, malchus. When we speak about tzimtzum as concealment and so on, that is only from our perspective, in relation to the recipient. But from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, as the Alter Rebbe says here, there is nothing besides Him. “There is no place devoid of Him.” So wherever the speech is, the Ein Sof itself is there too. And consequently, as we say, when speech is included in the Ein Sof, it is utterly null and nothing, with no standing or significance of its own. So it is the same now. We can therefore understand that the nullification of everything—the true nullification expressed by “there is no place devoid of Him,” the true nullification of “I, Havayah, have not changed”—applies even when speech is revealed through the mouth. That is the fundamental point the Alter Rebbe adds here in chapter 21 as compared with chapter 20. Do you understand? Ah, that’s clear. Therefore, the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like our speech, G-d forbid, just as His thought is not like our thought. The Alter Rebbe says: Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech is not like our speech, and we say the same thing about thought. We also say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought is not

12:43 like our thought. For “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” That is an explicit verse: Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought is not like our thought. And as it says here, “My ways are higher than your ways.” In other words, in every respect, in all the sefiros and in every matter, there is a vast difference. Although we use analogies and apply terms to what is Above—in Likkutei too, we speak of thought, speech, and middos—we must know that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, all of this is beyond comparison. What did he want to add here in parentheses? It matters to me. Why is it important to say, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts”? What else does he want to add here? So, apparently, it goes like this, and we’ll get to thought as well. Even when we get to thought, there is creation through the aspect of thought. Just as there is creation through speech, there is also creation through thought. Yes, Chassidus says there is creation. That is, there are two levels: concealed worlds and revealed worlds. There are worlds that come from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech, which become worlds that have a sense of independent existence. And there are worlds that come from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought; these are concealed worlds. It is like the difference, in a person, between speech and thought. Thought is subtler and more closely connected to the soul. That is why no separate other is felt there. It remains entirely within the person himself. The letters are perceived only by the person himself, whereas speech leaves the person and is received by someone else. But thought, too, brings about creation. It is the same principle. What is created through thought consists of beings in a state of utter nullification, just as thought itself is nullified. These beings are called “fish of the sea”; they are in a state of utter nullification, and their separate existence is not felt

14:58 at all. And then there are our created beings, from the revealed world; they come from speech. Now I’ll get to speech. What did we explain? That our speech is not like the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what he explained earlier, and what we’ve just explained. Yes, we learned that a person’s speech becomes distinct and separate. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it does not become separate; it remains connected. I’ll get to thought. But what else? What does “My thoughts are not your thoughts” mean? If a person’s thought is one with the person, then isn’t creation through Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought also the same? What is the point here? In what respect do we say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts”? There are two points. The first difference is that a person’s thought does not bring anything into being. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it does. That is one difference. You see, there is a very great difference between thought and speech. A person’s speech accomplishes something. When I speak, I can make someone listen or move. You tell someone to do something, and you cause that person to act. There is an effect: speech acts upon something outside the speaker. It does not create something from nothing; it acts upon something that already exists. But it does accomplish something. All the more so with Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech: it also brings things into being, so there is an effect. A person’s thought, however, does not do anything. Thought has no effect. Thought is just thought. It is something theoretical. It is something... it is not a reality in its own right. Thought does not do anything. And here is what is novel with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, unlike with a person: His thought also brings things into being.

17:06 That is one novel point in “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought is not like our thought. Our thought does not do anything; His thought brings things into being. Although thought remains within Himself, the novel point with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is that not only speech but thought, too, brings things into being. But what else? He is saying something more here. That is one point. Then there is another. What else does “My thoughts are not your thoughts” mean? Even though our thought is subtler than speech, ultimately, within thought—within the garment of thought—some sense of self already exists. Some sense of independent reality is already felt. By contrast, when we speak of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” the nullification of created beings at the level of thought is far greater than the nullification of that sense of existence within our own thought. In our thought there is already a sense of self—a spiritual, subtle sense of self, but still a sense of existence. It is not truly in a state of utter nullification. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, by contrast, that which exists within thought is utterly nullified. So we see something interesting here. If you were listening to what I just said, there are two seeming opposites here, two extremes. On the one hand, I am saying that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought is not like our thought because His thought does bring things into being. Our thought does not, and His does. On the other hand, when we come to the level of nullification, the nullification of created beings within Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought is far greater than the nullification of something existing within a human soul, because in a human soul, it already has a

19:12 reality of its own. Even in thought, it is not a physical reality, but it is a reality. There is already an existence there. It is a reality; there is certainly already some sense of existence. Within Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought, however, it is in a state of utter nullification. So there are two extremes: something does come into being through thought, and at the same time, its nullification is absolute. That is what the Alter Rebbe means when he says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts.” In any case, what is he trying to say here? Just as we say about thought, “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” as the verse states—and in explaining that verse, the point relevant here is not the existence of what thought brings into being, but its nullification: thought brings it into being, and yet it remains utterly nullified. So I will say the same about Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech. His speech is not like ours. His speech also brings things into being, and what comes into being through speech is a physical world, a reality. Yet Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech is not separate from Him. It remains completely one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Consequently, in truth, created beings remain nullified even after Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks and says, “Let there be a firmament,” bringing about a revealed world. Even then, the world is nullified as though He had never spoken. In other words, it is nullified just as it is at the level of the Ein Sof. Why? Because there is nothing besides Him; “there is no place devoid of Him.” That is the point about the oneness of Havayah that the Alter Rebbe explains to us here in chapter 21. In chapter 20, the main point was to explain how utterly incomparable Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech is to Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. In chapter 21, the emphasis is not on that incomparability, but on how it remains included in Him—how this speech is always included

21:20 Within the Ein Sof, for there is nothing apart from Him. So this bittul is a true bittul: even after speech—even once there is actual speech and creation—it remains at the same level of bittul. This is what we mean when we say in davening, “You are He before the world was created; You are He after the world was created.” Even after a world was created—not only the hidden world, but even the revealed world—He remains “You are He” in exactly the same way. It is an utter bittul, as though creation had never taken place, for there is nothing apart from Him.